Winterizing your home can be a painstaking task, but let me tell you, not winterizing your home is worse. The Spokane area starts getting freezing temperatures in late October, but a prudent home owner will want to have winterization well under way prior to any cold temperatures.Here are our three often over looked winterizing tasks:

1. Have you furnace cleaned and serviced.  When cold weather hits and you are relying on your furnace to keep your family warm, you do not want to be calling an expensive emergency tech in the middle of the night.  Most problems can be solved by servicing your furnace annually to prevent common maintenance issues from bringing you down in the "cold of the night."  A clean well maintained furnace is also more efficient.
2. Check your smoke detector batteries.  With colder temperatures means increased usage of space heaters and furnaces it is essential to be prepared for a worst case scenario.  For those with combustion furnaces (oil or natural gas), a carbon monoxiced and explosive gas detector is a good addition to your home.
3. While most newer homes have frost-free valves, it's still important to make sure you disconnect all hoses from the faucet to prevent ice buildup and damage to the valve, while unlikely, it's still recommended that you use an insulated spigot cover to insulate your spigot during cold temperatures (frost free or not).

Winterizing your Spokane Home is one of the most important things you can do to prevent damage and preserve value.  Some other convenience related winterization tips are to purchases your de-ice product in advance so you are not rushing to the hardware store on a cold night to get some, and making sure your snow shovels are up to par and properly maintained.